A word fitly spoken has incredible power (Proverbs 25:11). Burdened by the rampant disregard for Gods Word, two young men collaborated to write a book called simply The Genesis Flood. Fifty years later their shout still reverberates round the world. In February 1961 a small publisher in New JerseyPresbyterian and Reformed Publishing Companybrought into this world a 518-page, somewhat ponderous, volume entitled The Genesis Food: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. The co-authors were a little-known theologian (myself) and a hydraulic engineer, Henry M. Morris. Little did we know what the future held for our new work. Conception The book was conceived in September 1953 at Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana, where I had already been teaching for two years. At the time I accepted the gap theory of Genesis 1:12, which was very popular in Christian circles and was the view held by most of the seminary faculty. That changed when Dr. Henry Morris was invited to present a paper on Biblical Evidence for a Recent Creation and Universal Deluge to the American Scientific Affiliation, which met on campus. I was profoundly impressed with his paper. Later, I wrote him a letter explaining its influence on me: I feel that your conclusions are scripturally valid, and therefore must be sustained by a fair examination of geologic evidence in time to come. My only regret is that so few trained Christian men of science are willing to let Gods Word have the final say on these questions . . . . I have adopted your views . . . and am presenting them to my class as preferable alternatives to the Gap Theory and the Day-Age Theory.

I’m aware of a PhD who teaches evolution at a major university who recently became a Christian and joined a conservative Reformed church, apparently unaware that Biblical Christianity and evolution are incompatible. His wife has read books by Henry Morris and become convinced. From what I understand he is really struggling right now.

That book did so much damage to the cause of Christ, caused so much rancor in the body of Christ, and promulgated what amounted to dreams and suppositions as gospel truth. I am sorry for anyone who believes the nonsense in that book.

Genesis 1:2 says this earth was flooded first. Long, long before Genesis 6. Nothing in the Genesis account describes the creation of each and every individual ‘soul/spirit intellect’. Yet we know the ‘soul/spirit intellect’ existed, as it was the ‘breath of life’ that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils that made him living. ‘Breath of life’ means soul. And it is that ‘breath of life’ (soul/spirit intellect) that returns to the Maker that sent it.

Or maybe more likely a storm of comets and other debris that originated from the fountains of the great deep inside the Earth. So massive it even broke open the atmosphere surrounding the Earth [see Genesis 7:11].

One would think such an anti-science, anti-intellectual would deny every underpinning of the field of engineering, right?

I'll stay out of this argument. I'll simply mention that I spent two semesters as a visiting professor at an engineering school in Istanbul. The very essence of science and engineering is that there are laws of nature that we can discover and use. However, the very essence of Islam is that there are no laws of nature. Everything happens because "Allah wills it." If you bring fire to a piece of paper, the fire doesn't cause the paper to burn. The paper burns because it is the will of Allah.

Muslims believe that Allah recreates the entire universe at every instant, and literally, what was a rock at one instant can be recreated as a tree.

How, then, can Muslims be scientists and engineers? I never did figure that one out.

I read an interesting book a while back - very dry, but in essence it was about why the Western culture was able to advance science (because of the assumptions of Christianity) and why the East and Islam were not able to.

In Islam, it is blasphemy to expect consistency of natural laws, because that is considered “chaining Allah”.

The problem in the East was with the ancestor worship, sort of taking the fifth commandment to a twisted extreme. They were culturally restricted from experimenting beyond what their ancestors accomplished until they were able to flawlessly replicate what the ancestors did.

30
posted on 02/03/2014 9:25:39 AM PST
by MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)

That’s tough. I was particularly close to an uncle who died a few years ago. Though he professed his faith in Christ, I fear he was never saved. I won’t know for sure until eternity. What I do know is our Lord is holy and just. He will do what is right.

My testimony is at odds with your statement that this book and the works of Dr. Henry Morris did damage to the cause of Christ. I was raised in a liberal mainline denomination and grew up reading the evolutionary Time-Life encyclopedia set cover to cover. My faith was marginal due in part to the apparent discrepancies between “science” and the Bible. Consequently, I lived a marginally Christian life and wandered far.

It wasn't until I experienced a year of intense discipleship that included reading Dr. Morris’ writings, that I woke up and realized that true science (discovering God's works) and true faith (discovering God's Word) are perfectly synchronized. For me, the cause of Christ was realized as I now walk as a devoted follower of Jesus.

And really, isnt that the problem - too many marginal believers or pseudo-believers not living fully for Christ, sharing truth and loving the folks that are put into their lives?

- a fellow engineer

37
posted on 02/03/2014 11:29:56 AM PST
by Squidpup
("Fight the Good Fight of Faith")

Genesis 1:2 says this earth was flooded first. Long, long before Genesis 6.

I see you are a student of the word AND the manuscripts!

This Morris guy, who also wrote the "Defenders Bible", thinks Noah took dinosaurs aboard the ark. Not big ones he says, but "little baby dinosaurs.":) That is how little known that there was a first earth age and how people make foolish statements (sottish) by not recognizing that fact.

I was once a thoroughgoing evolutionist back when I thought I was about the smartest guy on the planet. But not any more.

Evolution across species simply makes no sense. Neither does the Big Bang or the "billions and billions of years..." schtick. None of it is required and most of it is implausible looking at it using today's science.

But, put it all in the same pot with Man Made Global Warming and you have quite a stew. Unfortunately, it is thin gruel, bad tasting. One may as well go back to practicing medicine with leeches and lancets.

39
posted on 02/03/2014 1:51:03 PM PST
by Gritty
(Inside every liberal is a totalitarian screaming to get out! - David Horowitz)

I see you are a student of the word AND the manuscripts! This Morris guy, who also wrote the "Defenders Bible", thinks Noah took dinosaurs aboard the ark. Not big ones he says, but "little baby dinosaurs.":) That is how little known that there was a first earth age and how people make foolish statements (sottish) by not recognizing that fact

I cannot describe my surprise when I finally read what even the KJV actually says. Why there was a flood right there in the second verse. See I could not understand IF all the young earth, 6, 24/7 day creationists were correct, why would God allow the law of the land make TOE supreme?... Course it does not bother some denominations to have TOE the methodology in which God used over the ages of time. Why that so called 'original sin' did not take place in an apple orchard but a fig grove. The translators were being kind when they used that word sottish.

As a gardener, I know that once I plant a seed it is out of my hands if the seed will germinate.

I am glad you came to Christ because of this. I suppose the LORD can use almost anything to begin a believer's walk, as He is sovereign.

When I say Morris' book caused damage to the cause of Christ, really, it was more Morris' followers who did so. Believers like me who do not hold to the literal 24-hour-days interpretation of Genesis are absolutely castigated by Ken Ham and other Answers in Genesis types, the spiritual successors to Morris, saying that we are "evolutionists", or "believers in hydrogen gas", or "following after science rather than God."

I am none of these things, and nor are other believers who take physical measurements of God's creation to be truth.

To me, it seems that Morris and his followers are positing a Wizard-of-Oz-like God, who must cover up millions of years of weathering (e.g., the Grand Canyon) and ambiguously attribute it as the result of a single year-and-a-half flood event. The God of the Bible does not work that way; he cannot lie.

I don't know what the correct interpretation is, but I refuse to believe that God would deceive mankind about the most fundamental question of our physical universe: its age.

The Bible never says ANYWHERE that Noah's flood covered the entire surface of the third planet of this system. The "whole world" was the world of humanity, in the language of the Old Testament (ancient Hebrew). And indeed, it wasn't even necessary for the entire globe to be flooded to accomplish God's goals: cleansing the Earth of sinful man.

The flood could be completely universal-- that is, destroying all of sinful mankind and the nephesh animals associated with him-- and NOT be global in scope.

We know that the people of Noah's time refused to obey God's command to spread out and fill the whole earth. Why then should God flood the whole planet a mere 20,000 to 60,000 years ago?

Moreover, there is no geologic evidence for such a worldwide deluge such a short time ago.

I am a believer in Christ, and of the truth of the Bible. But I do not hold to the 24-hour-creation-day interpretation, nor the "Noah's flood made the Grand Canyon, and coal, and oil" interpretation of Mr. Morris and his acolytes.

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